Al Hirschfeld was born in 1903 in a two-story
duplex apartment at 1313 Carr Street in
St. Louis, Missouri. His father, Isaac, was a
German-Jewish traveling salesman, while his mother, Rebecca, was from a family of Orthodox Russian Jews. His maternal grandparents refused to eat in his parents'
non-kosher home. He talked about how the family would not permit
bread in the house during Passover; during that time the family ate
matzah and ham sandwiches. where he received art training at the
Art Students League in
Midtown Manhattan and the
National Academy of Design in
Carnegie Hill, Manhattan. In 1924, Hirschfeld traveled to Paris and London, where he studied painting, drawing, and sculpture. When he returned to the United States, a friend, fabled Broadway press agent
Richard Maney, showed one of Hirschfeld's drawings to an editor at the
New York Herald Tribune, which got Hirschfeld commissions for the newspaper before he moved to
The New York Times. Readers of
The New York Times, and other newspapers prior to widespread color print, will be most familiar with the Hirschfeld drawings which are black ink on white illustration board. However, there is a whole body of Hirschfeld's work in color. His full-color paintings were commissioned by many magazines, often as the cover. Examples are found in
TV Guide,
Life,
The American Mercury,
Look,
The New York Times Magazine, the
New Masses, and
Seventeen. He also illustrated many books in color, most notably among them
Harlem as Seen by Hirschfeld, with text by
William Saroyan.
CBS commissioned him to illustrate a preview magazine featuring the network's new television programming in fall 1963. One of the programs was
Candid Camera, and Hirschfeld's caricature of the show's host
Allen Funt outraged Funt so much he threatened to leave the network if the magazine was published. Hirschfeld prepared a slightly different likeness, perhaps more flattering, but he and the network pointed out to Funt that the artwork prepared for newspapers and some other print media had been long in preparation and it was too late to withdraw it. Funt relented but insisted that what could be changed would have to be.
Newsweek ran a
squib on the controversy.
Broadway, film, and more ,
Minnelli on Minnelli, 1999 Hirschfeld started young and continued drawing to the end of his life, thus chronicling nearly all of the major entertainment figures of the 20th century. During his eight-decade career, he gained fame by illustrating the actors, singers, and dancers of various
Broadway plays, which would appear in advance in
The New York Times to herald the play's opening. Though the theater was his best-known field of interest, according to Hirschfeld's art dealer
Margo Feiden, he actually drew more for the movies than he did for live plays. "By the ripe old age of 17, while his contemporaries were learning how to sharpen pencils, Hirschfeld became an art director at
Selznick Pictures. He held the position for about four years, and then in 1924 Hirschfeld moved to Paris to work and lead a
Bohemian life. He grew a beard, necessitated by the exigencies of living in a cold water flat which he retained for 75 years, presumably because 'you never know when your
oil burner will go on the fritz. In addition to Broadway and film, Hirschfeld also drew politicians, TV stars, and celebrities of all stripes, from
Cole Porter and the
Nicholas Brothers to the cast of
Star Trek: The Next Generation. He caricatured jazz musicians including
Glenn Miller,
Benny Goodman,
Artie Shaw,
Tommy Dorsey,
Fats Waller,
Lionel Hampton,
Harry James,
Louis Armstrong,
Duke Ellington,
Count Basie,
Dizzy Gillespie,
Billie Holiday, and
Ella Fitzgerald; country group
The Oak Ridge Boys; and rockers
The Beatles,
Elvis Presley,
Bruce Springsteen,
Bob Dylan,
Jerry Garcia, and
Mick Jagger. In 1977, he drew the cover of
Aerosmith's
Draw the Line album. Hirschfeld drew original posters for
Charlie Chaplin's films as well as for
The Wizard of Oz (1939) and many other original movie posters. The
Rhapsody in Blue segment in the
Disney movie
Fantasia 2000 was inspired by his designs, and Hirschfeld became an artistic consultant for the segment. The segment's director,
Eric Goldberg, is a longtime fan of his work. Further evidence of Goldberg's admiration for Hirschfeld can be found in Goldberg's character design and animation of the genie in
Aladdin (1992).
Nina In 1943, Hirschfeld married German actress
Dolly Haas. They were married for more than 50 years and had a daughter, Nina. In the
Fantasia 2000 segment, the crimp of Duke the Builder's toothpaste tube contained a "NINA" in tribute to Hirschfeld. Hirschfeld's illustrations for the theater were gathered and published yearly in the books,
The Best Plays of ... (for example,
The Best Plays of 1958–1959). Additional collections of Hirschfeld's illustrations include
Manhattan Oasis,
Show Business Is No Business (1951),
American Theater,
The American Theater as Seen by Al Hirschfeld,
The World of Al Hirschfeld (1970),
The Lively Years, 1920–1973 with text by
Brooks Atkinson (1973),
The Entertainers (1977),
Hirschfeld by Hirschfeld (1979),
Hirschfeld’s World (1981),
Show Business is No Business with preface and endnotes by Margo Feiden (1983),
A Selection of Limited Edition Etchings and Lithographs with text by Margo Feiden (1983),
Art and Recollections From Eight Decades (1991),
Hirschfeld On Line (2000),
Hirschfeld’s Hollywood (2001),
Hirschfeld’s New York (2001),
Hirschfeld’s Speakeasies of 1932 with introduction by
Pete Hamill (2003), and
Hirschfeld’s British Isles (2005). Hirschfeld collaborated with humorist
S. J. Perelman on several publications including
Westward Ha! Or, Around the World in 80 Clichés, a satirical look at the duo's travels on assignment for
Holiday. In 1987, the
United States Postal Service commissioned him to draw a series of
postage stamps commemorating famous American comedians. Next was a collection of drawings of silent film stars including
Rudolph Valentino,
ZaSu Pitts, and
Buster Keaton. The Postal Service allowed him to include Nina's name in his drawings, waiving its own rule forbidding hidden messages in U.S. stamp designs. Hirschfeld expanded his audience by contributing to
Patrick F. McManus's humor column in
Outdoor Life for a number of years.
Collections and tributes on the
Upper West Side of Manhattan Permanent collections of Hirschfeld's work can be found in a variety of institutions including the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, the
Museum of Modern Art, In 2002, Hirschfeld was awarded the
National Medal of Arts. He was an Honorary Member of the
Salmagundi Club in
Manhattan. In 2012, he was added to the Jewish-American Hall of Fame. ==Personal life and death==